Divorce confirmed

The Court of Cassation has also upheld the verdict of the Appeal Court and the Court of First Instances ordering the divorce of Tariq S from his wife Amal S for abusing and deserting her without legitimate reason.

The court ordered Tariq to pay his divorced wife Dh.4000 as matrimonial alimony for the period from April 2004 until the end of October, 2004 as well as Dh.200,000 as a delayed payment of dowry. The case dates to the end of 2003 when Amal S filed a suit against her husband Tariq S asking for divorce after he abused and called her names.

In her complaint, Amal S said he had described her as “cheap, an animal, awful and old''. The woman complained that he had not only deserted her without any legitimate reason but also expelled her from the house and and sent her to live with her parents at their home. She said he had ordered her to stay with her parents and did not want her any more.

The Court of First Instances ruled that the couple be divorced irrevocably and forced him to pay her Dh120,000 as a one-time matrimonial alimony up to the date of divorce and the expiry of the 'iddat' (100 days after divorce as per the Islamic Shariah law) and Dh200,000 as postponed dowry. The husband, however, appealed against the verdict. The Court of Appeals amended the sentence making it mandatory on him to pay her Dh.4000 as matrimonial alimony. The husband appealed before the Court of Cassation.

The defence lawyer said his client was a foreign national and as per the law No. 21 of 1997 regarding the maximum postponed dowry it was not applicable to foreigners. The amount claimed as postponed dowry was Dh.200, 000 and the wife had admitted to having received Dh75,000.

Accordingly, she had received both the advanced and postponed dowry. However, pinpointing the postponed dowry in the marriage contract was contrary to the provisions of article 1 of the law No. 12 of 1973.

The Court, however, said in its reply that if one of the two married persons is a UAE national, the same will be subject to the UAE law.